Sporting Kansas City seem to have turned around their season and at least for the time being are grinding out results and points. Credit where it is due they are doing so in a season where the plan has gone out of the window. Teal Bunbury, the face of the franchise in all but title is having a horror show run of bad form and seems to have lost any shred of confidence he has. Craig Rocastle, such an important player mangled his knee in the Gold Cup and will be out for months and it feels like the hits just keep coming. Bravo just isn’t the player he was prior to the surgery yet. Ryan Smith has run off back to the UK to take care of family issues – he won’t be back this season if ever.

If you told me at the start of the season CJ Sapong would be the new wonder kid, that Seth Sinovic and Chance Myers would be playing well enough that I would not miss Harrington or Espinoza, that Stephane Auvray would be playing almost no part in the season and that Graham Zusi would not only break into the midfield but arguably be the best of the crop I might have actually laughed.

Had we lost on Wednesday though I doubt I would even have frowned for long. It is almost laughable that we got a point considering everything but regardless … I have found a happy image to focus on when times get rough. I’m sure I’ll test it in a bit as the season moves on but for now its stuck in my head and it makes me smile.

After the home opener that wasn’t, with all its splendor, and Lance Armstrong and Chad Ochocinco followed by a truly tragic game of football I was left feeling empty.  The Gold Cup came and went and I think its easy enough to say that it was also a disappointment in its own way with Clint Dempsey working so hard to keep the score at 1-0, and Landon Donovan playing poorly enough that he was relegated to the bench. I enjoyed the day but it wasn’t mine – I wasn’t vested, and even if I was the result wasn’t all it should have been.

The San Jose game on the other hand was the real deal. A tightly contested 1-0 win. It should have been the highlight and it was close but beyond that it felt like a true opener. The Cauldron, the Supporters Section made such a magnificent racket that at times their exuberance became infections and spread around the stadium to the traditionally quieter fans producing goose bumps and wide eyes as those around me started to realize just how amazing a stadium could sound when 19,000 people join in. It was astonishing, amazing to see the light bulbs go on and the frenzy of enthusiasm generated and a nice sample of things to come in the future.

It felt more like the Home Opener than any other game could. It was a win, with the wonderful stadium not just serving as a pretty back drop, but a functioning living, thriving organism that slowly came to life as the game unfolded. June 9th was for the TV, San Jose felt like it was more for the fans, by the fans. At least to me.

My happy image? Not there yet.

I sat and watched the stadium empty after the game, then wondered over to the Members Club to maybe grab a beer – I’d been a few minutes. As I approached I noticed some of the members section waving flags behind the Fox Soccer Channel’s broadcast team. Then I heard booming noise flying out of the club itself as hundreds of voices joined in unison celebrated in a way that I had not heard since the days of my youth in the stadium I talk to much about.

I wondered in, stood on the bridge over the top and watched, listened and grinned as the fans did their best to drown out the live TV broadcast. It was an amazing show, and for minutes I watched feeling slightly sad that I wasn’t in the middle of it all but glad that had still seen it.

The Cauldron, made up of many people, and many voices was one, united and prouder than I had ever seen them. It was as if 15 years and tension was literally pouring out after it should have but didn’t at the June 9th opener. We had our win, at our home, and the party? Only just beginning.

I stepped away from my vantage point and wondered down the stairs into the Members Club. There I recognized Ben. A face you may well know, a former Cauldron Capo from the Arrowhead days. A guy I barely know. I’m going to guess he is late 20s early 30s but he looked like he was about five years old at that moment, like all his Christmases had come at once. Eyes twinkling, an almost stunned speechless look complimented with a disbelieving childish goofy grin spread wide across his face.

God damn if he wasn’t the happiest looking son of a bitch I have seen in many a year.

I’d guess if he could have summed up that evening in one word it would be something like “Special”, and it was. We may not have the trophies, and might not be flying high in the table but these will be remembered as halcyon days by those that bound to this club who have experienced them. Special times and at worst just the beginning of a bright future.

If there is a bump in the road I have Ben the man child to keep me company and pick me up. I just can’t get him out of my head.

He looked just how I felt.

I don’t want to lose that for a while.